Have a 120 gal tank that has been up and running for approximately 4 months now. Live rock & sand, several soft corals, foxface rabbitfish, clownfish with condy anenome (I know, not natural pairing), 3 royal grammas, 2 yellow tailed damsels, lawnmower blennie, bi-color blennie, 2 cleaner shirmp and a coral beauty angel. All livestock doing well and getting along great. The anemome moves about in one corner of the tank but seems to be very healthy. He disappeared for a couple of days last week and showed up in the sump! Still have not figured how he could have ever squeezed in there! Rescued him and he seems to unbelievably be none worse for the wear 10 days later...a few bent tenticles but otherwise fine. Since this happened (maybe just a coincidence) we have a lot of micro bubbles in the tank. And there is "skim" on the top of the water - skimming a paper towel across it, you get alot of brown gunk. Our LifeReef skimmer seems to be working just fine and wall water paramaters are good. What could be causing all the bubbles and gunk? We have never taken apart everything and cleaned out tubes, lines, etc....is it just time to do this for the first time? And/or could there be another problem?
Gunk & microbubbles
- Thread starter montana
- Start date
IMO it's odd to see any gunk at the surface in a setup that has an overflow. Dissolved organics are what tend to float and accumulate at the surface, so if there's a problem with that, my first suspicion would be the skimmer not performing well. How often do you have to empty the collection cup?
As for the microbubbles, are you seeing them everywhere, or are they associated with some type of algae? They can be caused by the skimmer allowing some to escape into the effluent (which ultimately gets pumped into the tank by the return pump). Baffles between the skimmer and the return pump can usually eliminate this problem (unless you're running too much flow through the sump).
Another common problem is a pinhole leak somewhere in your plumbing. The water rushing through creates a slight venturi effect and pulls tiny bits of air in. Check the outlets of your return pump and (if you have any) closed loop pump(s) carefully to see if they are ejecting any tiny bubbles.
As for the microbubbles, are you seeing them everywhere, or are they associated with some type of algae? They can be caused by the skimmer allowing some to escape into the effluent (which ultimately gets pumped into the tank by the return pump). Baffles between the skimmer and the return pump can usually eliminate this problem (unless you're running too much flow through the sump).
Another common problem is a pinhole leak somewhere in your plumbing. The water rushing through creates a slight venturi effect and pulls tiny bits of air in. Check the outlets of your return pump and (if you have any) closed loop pump(s) carefully to see if they are ejecting any tiny bubbles.
The bubbles come in bursts from the return nozzles (we have a back corner overflow). Within a few days time, some will start accumulating on the front and the tank. We have a in-sump skimmer, and any bubbles should supposedly be filtered and baffled out within the sump chambers. We will try your suggestions - and talk to the skimmer manufacturer, too. Please see the first attached photo - we have a custom-built LifeReef system and Jeff, the owner is great about answering any questions. Maybe we just need to clean the venturi? It has been running for 4 mos now and we haven't done any cleaning other than emptying the collection cup - which I do about weekly. It fills fairly regularly, which makes me think the skimmer is working efficiently? I am so new to this, who knows!
As to the layer of floating "gunk"... it does not pool near the overflow....see the second attached photo. We did just mess with the nozzles a bit to try to get better circulation; maybe we need to redirect them?
Thanks for your help!
As to the layer of floating "gunk"... it does not pool near the overflow....see the second attached photo. We did just mess with the nozzles a bit to try to get better circulation; maybe we need to redirect them?
Thanks for your help!
Attachments
I would redirect one of the return nozzles to help "push" the slick toward the overflow. You could also add a powerhead to accomplish this.
Judging by the pics it looks like you have some excess nutrients in there which could partially account for the slick on the surface. Considering the bioload you have in the tank I would expect a bit more skimmate production than you're getting. I have no experience with that unit but you might ask LifeReef for some tips on how to get more skimmate production. You can try cleaning it more frequently and/or running it wetter (ie. dialing-up the water level to collect a more watery skimmate) to see if that helps. Make sure you're driving it with an adequate pump and the venturi is staying clean and performing well.
Also, increasing in-tank circulation, blasting the rockwork periodically with a turkey baster or powerhead, syphoning detritus, doing more frequent water changes and replacing your activated carbon monthly (I prefer Marineland Black Diamond or Two Little Fishies HydroCarbon as they don't seem to leach much phosphate) are all good ways to increase nutrient export (and therefore reduce the surface slick and nuisance algaes).
HTH
Judging by the pics it looks like you have some excess nutrients in there which could partially account for the slick on the surface. Considering the bioload you have in the tank I would expect a bit more skimmate production than you're getting. I have no experience with that unit but you might ask LifeReef for some tips on how to get more skimmate production. You can try cleaning it more frequently and/or running it wetter (ie. dialing-up the water level to collect a more watery skimmate) to see if that helps. Make sure you're driving it with an adequate pump and the venturi is staying clean and performing well.
Also, increasing in-tank circulation, blasting the rockwork periodically with a turkey baster or powerhead, syphoning detritus, doing more frequent water changes and replacing your activated carbon monthly (I prefer Marineland Black Diamond or Two Little Fishies HydroCarbon as they don't seem to leach much phosphate) are all good ways to increase nutrient export (and therefore reduce the surface slick and nuisance algaes).
HTH
montana, you should be changing your charcoal at least every 4 weeks IMO. As for the gunk on your surface, maybe it's something that your condy expelled when it was unhappy which could be causing your skimmer to not be workink optimally. This happens to me in my aquarium sometimes when I dose plankton (micro-bubbles). I would do a 20% water change and see if things get better. BTW, I'm also in Billings which LFS do you go to?
...forgot about the microbubbles, sorry.
It looks like there's a lot of microbubbles being generated by the drain entering the sump, and not too many baffles between that drain and the return pump. If you're seeing periodic bursts of microbubbles out of the return pump, most likely bubbles are accumulating somewhere and then periodically an air bubble gets sucked into the return pump which will then in turn spews some microbubbles into the tank.
HTH
It looks like there's a lot of microbubbles being generated by the drain entering the sump, and not too many baffles between that drain and the return pump. If you're seeing periodic bursts of microbubbles out of the return pump, most likely bubbles are accumulating somewhere and then periodically an air bubble gets sucked into the return pump which will then in turn spews some microbubbles into the tank.
HTH
Montana I had the same issue with microbubbles early on. My skimmer was kicking them out big time. Then someone here suggested filter floss in the last baffle in my sump and voila no more bubbles. Of course now I have just one more thing to clean on a regular basis.
It looks like your drain is creating a ton of bubbles. Look with a flashlight in the sump where your return line is and see if you can see a lot of tiny bubbles in this section. If there are then they could be building up and getting shot back into your tank.
If this is the problem use filter floss in your last section of baffles before your retun. the gunk is a mystery to me.........
It looks like your drain is creating a ton of bubbles. Look with a flashlight in the sump where your return line is and see if you can see a lot of tiny bubbles in this section. If there are then they could be building up and getting shot back into your tank.
If this is the problem use filter floss in your last section of baffles before your retun. the gunk is a mystery to me.........
Spoke with LifeReef and got our problems solved. There was not a problem with our skimmer performance due to the equipment not working properly...it was new operator error! We don't have the skimmer set up quite right, and also needed to rinse out a pad....the microbubbles are gone and the skim on the top of the water in the tank is receding...
The skim WAS likely a byproduct of the anenome being stressed...we also had a plate coral die...
things seem to be working fine now. Thanks for the help.
The skim WAS likely a byproduct of the anenome being stressed...we also had a plate coral die...
things seem to be working fine now. Thanks for the help.
Last week one of my BTAs decided to take a ride on the powerhead express; after I went to bed, of course. I got up in the morning and it looked like someone poured a gallon of milk in my 135 gallon.
The water was so milky that we couldn't see into the tank well enough to figure out what happened. We finally found out what was going on and shut down the powerhead & pulled the intake cone thing off. We put the cone/anenmone lump into the hospital tank and hoped he'd be able to untangle himself. No such luck. We carefully pulled him out of it (talk about gross) but unfortunately, he died. What a horrible death. Poor guy. It took about 3 days to clear up.
At any rate I have since wrapped all my powerhead and filter intakes in the blue pad stuff that goes around the baskets in my Magnum 350s. Great use for an old pad.
Just something to keep in mind.
We NEVER thought an anenmone could go up 2ft to the intakes.
The water was so milky that we couldn't see into the tank well enough to figure out what happened. We finally found out what was going on and shut down the powerhead & pulled the intake cone thing off. We put the cone/anenmone lump into the hospital tank and hoped he'd be able to untangle himself. No such luck. We carefully pulled him out of it (talk about gross) but unfortunately, he died. What a horrible death. Poor guy. It took about 3 days to clear up.
At any rate I have since wrapped all my powerhead and filter intakes in the blue pad stuff that goes around the baskets in my Magnum 350s. Great use for an old pad.
Just something to keep in mind.
We NEVER thought an anenmone could go up 2ft to the intakes.
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